Weird Al Gore, 'environmentalist'

Since the U.S.-led NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999, the incidence of cancer in Serbia, which received the brunt of the bombing, has at least doubled. Thousands of tons of bombs and missiles carrying depleted uranium were dropped on the country. The radioactive dust was inhaled not just by those nearby, but others unfortunate enough to be downwind. In addition, at least some of the deadly residue has seeped down to contaminate the water table in certain regions of Serbia.

Kosovo, whose Albanian population was supposed to be “saved” by the bombing, has become a DU dump. No one has the exact figures of the incidents of cancer among the majority Albanian population now. The United Nations, which is in charge of the civil administration of the province, is either not releasing figures, not conducting the necessary studies or not revealing what it knows. However, a number of NATO soldiers, especially from Italy, have gone home ill, some terminally.

Nearby, in Bosnia, during 1994-95, U.S. planes dropped DU ordnance on or near several population centers. In one of them, Hadzici near Sarajevo, cancer reached epidemic proportions by the late 1990s.

The thousands of overflights made by U.S. and other NATO planes on their bombing sorties heavily damaged the ozone layer above the Balkans. The thunder heard during storms for several weeks after the 78-day bombing was unnaturally loud, the lightening spectacular. On the other hand, the sun baked with a special vengeance that summer. The difference in its intensity was palpable; sunburn occurred in a matter of minutes.

All the above environmental havoc happened during the watch of Al Gore, the freshly anointed Nobel Peace Prize winner, while he served as vice president of the United States. No words of protest were heard coming from him at that time. Indeed, nothing but the utmost loyalty to the then-commander in chief was expressed by Tennessee’s most famous peacenik.

One fears to think what the former Yugoslavia would have looked like today had Gore not been an environmentalist.

From the strictly “peace” angle, during the 1999 bombing, U.S. warplanes dropped scores of cluster bombs on several Serbian cities and towns. Only last month, more than eight years after the fact, did NATO consent to provide the Serbian authorities with a map showing where the bombs, which can still kill and maim, were dropped. Cluster bombs are forbidden under the Geneva Conventions. As a lawyer, Gore must have known this. He also must have known something else: that bombing a country that was not attacking his own, without approval from the U.N., was a gross violation of international law, the crime above all war crimes: a crime against peace. The Nazi war crime trials in Nuremberg made that as clear as possible. So, we have a war criminal winning the latest Nobel Peace Prize. It seems Orwell’s Big Brother was right after all: War is Peace. And, one might add: Pollution is Cleanliness – especially when the pollution is radioactive.

One, however, must admit that the Balkans are definitely “greener” now thanks to the Clinton-Gore team’s dedicated work during the 1990s. Radical Islam has never been stronger or more radical in the region, thanks to the fact that the “green” administration in which Gore was No. 2, never failed to support extremist Muslims at the expense of moderate ones, both in Bosnia and in Kosovo. Under the Clinton-Gore watch, thanks to secret deals with the Iranians and Saudis, mujahedeen from all over the world were brought to Bosnia and, later, Kosovo, to help the “greening” of the Balkans.